Violence against women and girls will be treated as seriously by police as child sexual abuse, terrorism and serious and organised crime.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is set to make preventing such attacks a national policing priority, known as a strategic policing requirement (SPR).
The move follows international outrage over the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard almost a year ago by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens in south London.
It means the issue will now be a national priority for all police forces in England and Wales. The official announcement will coincide with the first anniversary of Ms Everard’s death next Thursday.
Ms Patel said: ‘The safety of women and girls is an absolute priority and I do not accept that violence against them is inevitable.
‘That is why last year I commissioned an inspection into the police’s response to tackling crimes disproportionately impacting women and girls.
‘The report made for difficult reading, but made a number of suggestions for how government, the police and others can and must do better.’
Chief constables will be required to ramp up efforts and resources to improve the record low conviction rate for rape of 1.3%, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Director of public prosecutions Max Hill QC stressed that ‘too few victims are seeing justice done’ even though rape accounted for 37% of all sexual offences recorded by police.
SPRs set out the key areas police are told to address and topics chief constables as well as police and crime commissioners are expected to focus on.
The decision, which comes as the government is expected to formally respond to the findings of the report, will provide ‘clear direction to policing and highlights where police forces need to work together, using their local and regional capabilities, to protect the public’, the Home Office said.
The first strand of Ms Patel’s campaign is set to launch with adverts, billboards, social media and radio advertising focusing on ‘targeting and challenging perpetrators and harmful attitudes.
The Home Office said it will highlight a ‘series of different forms of violence against women and girls, and the simple acts that anyone can take to challenge perpetrators of abuse’.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
from News – Metro https://ift.tt/4HSIgJn
0 Comments